Dr Chandaprakash Dwivedi, the director of Mohalla Assi, talks about the four-year-long ordeal of getting the CBFC’s clearance for his controversial film
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; January 12, 2018)

It has taken 13 months and 11 hearings at the Delhi High Court, and nearly four years of making rounds of the various offices of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for the makers of Mohalla Assi to finally get a go ahead. After much ordeal, the controversial movie (a satire on the commercialisation of Banaras) has finally secured ‘A’ certificate with just one cut.

Headlined by Sunny Deol and Sakshi Tanwar, the film was refused certification at various levels, because it was said to be offensive, full of derogatory words with abusive language and political references. It was also felt that the movie had the potential to hurt sentiments of a local area and incite communal disharmony among other things. The film’s makers approached the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), but even that didn’t help their battle.

Mohalla Assi director, Dr Chandaprakash Dwivedi, who was also an acting member of the CBFC when the film ran into Censor trouble, says, “I had never heard of an interim decision made by the FCAT. This was the first time I heard about it and I was aghast to say the least. The Tribunal, at its end, had delayed the matter by about three months. We applied in August and our screening happened only in November 2016. Even Kashinath Singh (the film is based on his book Kashi Ka Assi), was present at the screening. Verbally, we were assured that it would make its way through with our demand of an 'A' certification. The tribunal took a month to tell us that we need to make 10 ‘modifications’ and submit it for their reconsideration. I have heard of instances where after making cuts or modifications, you are granted a certificate, but here, we were being asked to submit for reconsideration, which could have had its own implications.”

The cuts or modifications demanded by the FCAT included deleting lines and words from dialogues, reducing a lovemaking scene to a flash, deleting ‘rashtra’ from ‘rashtrabhasha’, muting the word ‘b*******e’, muting the word ‘Babri’ from a reference to Babri Masjid and eliminating names of existing political figures like ‘Laloo’, ‘Mulayam’ and ‘Atal Bihari’, besides adding a disclaimer. After a string of hearings and checking the demanded modifications, presentation and the basis of the story (a popular work of literature acknowledged by the Central Government), the Delhi HC ordered the CBFC to pass it within a week with the said disclaimer and only muting the word ‘b*******e’.

The rest was all retained in the film. The CBFC failed to comply after which the producers moved court again, this time with a contempt of court petition, which is now being withdrawn.

“It was a long drawnout court battle for seeking relief. In numerous cases before, right from Bandit Queen to Gangs Of Wasseypur, films have been granted clearance by various courts in the country. As filmmakers, we have to approach the court seeking relief each time we dare to attempt something, which is controversial or is out of the usual, and present it in accordance with the subject matter,” says Dwivedi, adding, “I was a member of the CBFC, but I was also among those members who in the past blew the whistle on how the board had been misinterpreting the certification guidelines. All through our battle, I was clear that for as long as I am on the board, I will keep my roles as a filmmaker and a member separate from each other. I abstained from interfering with any activity although internally, I knew which member was on which committee. It was a matter of keeping the faith. What surprised or shocked me the most was the way in which the FCAT and the CBFC tried to delay justice. For the first time, the board had hired a private law firm to represent them, but it didn’t help. They even tried approaching the Delhi High Court’s double bench and were planning to go to the Supreme Court, but eventually, they asked for the film on January 8 and granted the certificate on January 10, 2018. Now, it feels that battle was worth it, but it came with a lot of delays and I’ve learnt that you have to be ready to fight to get your point across.”

Vinay Tiwari, one of the producers of the film, doesn’t mince words while calling the exercise a battle of egos. “I think Prasoon Joshi, as the CBFC chief, knows his job, but Pahlaj Nihalani had made this a battle of egos. Forget certifying the film, he refused to even see the content. And all this, when we were asking for an ‘A’ certificate knowing what we had on hand. But better late than never! Sunny paaji is very happy, too. We put in a lot of hard work and had to put up with heartburn for a long time. You can’t account for every loss in terms of money, but we’re now ready to bring the film to the audience because it has social relevance,” he says.

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